History of Divers Lodge Lembeh
Here you can find the history of Divers Lodge Lembeh since 2001 and how it was founded.
Walenekoko Lagoon in 2008, recovered by the Internet Archive
From 2001-2002
Rob & Linda discovered the area which would be Divers Lodge Lembeh in 2001, which at the time Linda was the crew, and Rob was the guide for their dive centre named Flipper Tobelo (Founded in 1998). At the time when they found the peninsula next to Walenekoko’s lagoon it was Linda’s dream to eventually if she could afford to buy the land and conserve it. Later on in 2002 Linda’s brother Roy purchased some land in Lembeh to be used for boat building for Flipper Tobelo, after Rob & Linda went to the newly purchased land it was revealed to be the peninsula Linda dreamed of owning.
Flipper Tobelo was originally operating out of Benteng Resort until 2002. When tourism in Indonesia died completely due to the bomb in Bali incident at 2002, and the previous year with 9/11, Flipper Tobelo had to be relocated out of Benteng Resort to the current location.
Despite international tourism being gone at that period there was still a group of tourists in Sulawesi diving. Divers Lodge Lembeh was founded in the same year using the old website Diving-On-Sulawesi and we began accepting guests as a dive center with simple accommodations using tents, or by sleeping on the dive boat. 3 months after using simple accommodations we started building our first Bungalows which is Soa-Soa, Penyu, and Rajawali. At the time with simple accommodations, we only charged for diving. Accommodations and food was free at the time.
The Indah dive-boat. Recovered by the Internet Archive – 2003.
